Archive for February, 2011

Every day we share a single photo from our Flickr Pool shot by one of our faithful and talented readers (that’s you!).

Before the snow recently returned we had a stretch of some really nice, crisp winter days. Although it was pretty darn cold, we were blessed with some brilliant sunshine and wonderful light, much like we enjoyed last February. And as much as I’m enjoying our new-found snow now that it’s here, today I’d like to share with you a photograph that Maurice Li took at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden last Friday.

This photo caught my eye while I was finishing up yesterday’s post, and I was just blown away by the amazing colours that Maurice was able to achieve by back-lighting the lanterns – that red is just gorgeous. In his caption Maurice describes the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden as “an oasis”, and by presenting to us an image like this, he makes a pretty compelling argument.

A big thanks to all the contributers to the Flickr Pool. You are doing a magnificent job of representing all that is awesome in Vancouver, and my list of places to visit and revisit is growing every day. So I would personally like to say thank you.

Gary

A new kitty twice a week! Yup, we want YOUR cat photos and stories! Click here to find out how your cat can appear on Van City Kitty.

VIA reader Jen says our series is “adorable.” (Awww, shucks.) She submitted her cat-of-many-names, Fuzzy Pants McGee!:

We just got a cat from the SPCA in September and we love her! She was very skinny when she arrived, but has fattened up nicely. She is quite a mooch, and for a special treat she has a special fondness for cereal milk (the milk leftover after you eat cereal). She will sit right beside you and purr whenever you eat anything, and will place her paw on you to let you know she would reeeeally like some. We found her on the SPCA website while we were away on our honeymoon (my husband and I met online too, actually). Because we were on a road trip, we had lots of time to come up with ridiculous names. Fuzzy Pants McGee was what stuck. She’s a character, so it suits her. We call her Pants for short. Popos or Bobos also works. Or Bobo Fetts every once in a while… Name: Fuzzy Pants McGee Breed/Colouring: Tortoiseshell with white Hood: Cedar Cottage/Kensington Habits: Pants, like many cats, likes to sit by the window and chirp at all the birds. I have not seen other cats chase bird shadows, though. One of the pictures has her in extreme shadow. When the birds’ shadows disappear in the blackness, she’ll spend a good 20 minutes looking for them! She snorts, grunts and talks a lot while sleeping. She loves playing with mirror reflections, and flashlights but especially loves her toy mice. She will sometimes let me know it’s time for a ‘Pants Cave’—having a blanket propped up by my knees so she can burrow in beside me in her makeshift cat tent and get cozy. Hangouts: The bed on a plaid flannel quilt; the bathmat beside the forced air heater in the bathroom; on a brown paper smoking lily bag (by the other heater); any window. Her safety box—she has a ‘perch’ with pink towels that is also her travel box from the SPCA. (Ed. The BC SPCA’s “Hide Perch & Go Box” is genius and so great for cats in shelters.) They gave her a little pink piggy which she loves as well. Other info: One of her more hilarious quirks is her reaction to my vinyl astrosachel messenger bag. She attacks it with love/hysteria when ever she sees it. She bites the vinyl, tries to put her head inside the bag, chews on the plastic fasteners, and eventually purrs and cuddles up on top of it.

Are you looking for a (or another) little furry beast to love? Please check out Happy Tails, our weekly segment featuring the BC SPCA and one of the animals they currently have available for adoption. (You may have noticed that many of the Van City Kitties came from the SPCA!) Check back every Saturday for a new Happy Tails segment!

And if you adopted your pet from the SPCA and would like to share your awesome story on Happy Tails, send an email to vancitykitty@vancouverisawesome.com or Rory.Blanchard@novusnow.ca.

Vancouver is Awesome is pleased to co-sponsor the Utopia Festival: Women in Digital Culture March 5 at W2 Storyeum, and to celebrate we’re sharing a compilation from DJ She, DJ Lady Jane, Betti Forde, and Blondtron. In Blondtron’s words, “Utopia is a positive intervention and celebration of how far we as women have come and how we can continue to trail blaze like that bad ass bitches we are.”

The 74 minute mix below is meant to share some of the talent featured at Utopia while raising awareness for the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day. Festival Curator Betti Forde has worked hundreds of parties across the country and knows too well that there are often too many dicks on the dancefloor. Utopia makes space for women, showcasing a diverse lineup of talent in the bass and electro scenes.

The Utopia Festival is an all-day, all-night event, starting with daytime workshops on creative DJ and VJ technology. These workshops are intended for women of all levels of experience. Registration for the workshops begins at 9am.

At 12:30 pm, Utopia will storm the Drive with female-focused music during its Mobile Dance Party! This is a free, inclusive event. Bring noise-makers, costumes, smiles and your best moves. Meeting at Broadway Station, the parade will dance down Commercial Drive, then bus/bike/carpool back to W2 Storyeum for the Conference with amazing women contributors, speakers, musicians and guests, including a keynote by PEACHES.

The Evening Artist Showcase boasts the largest all female electronic music lineup
in Canada, with more than 30 internationally renowned artists, including: Peaches, Tanya Tagaq, Isis Salam (Thunderheist), Betti Forde, B-Traits, The Librarian, Lynx, Zenobia, She, Blondtron, Lady Lane, Tank Girl, Miss M, Just Sheila, Bles-sed, The Square Root of Evil, JNL, Miss Innocent, and DJ Tapes. Visual Media artists include VJ Electrabelle, Julie Gendron, Sebnem Ozpeta, Claudia Medina, and Krista Lomax.

Tickets at Beatstreet, Little Sister’s, Puff, Zulu, People’s Coop Bookstore, The Fall, W2 and online: http://utopiafestival.eventbrite.com/

Net proceeds support W2′s Second Annual Girls Creative Tech Summer Camps.

Every day we share a single photo from our Flickr Pool shot by one of our faithful and talented readers (that’s you!).

Storefront windows and displays can often be a great source of visual stimulation. Great care and attention may be afforded some; others are merely functional – and regardless of how much thought goes into any particular storefront display, if the result is an interesting composition then it becomes inconsequential.

David Crompton saw some potential in the storefront that we see in his Untitled photograph below, and I’m glad that he did. I get a real Cubist feeling from this photograph, almost like ‘Dining Room Sets Descending a Staircase No. 2′ or something. The effect is further enhanced by the reflection in the window and the additional information it contains.

Nice work.

Gary

I shot this photo of a stuffed marlin mounted onto the outside of somebody’s house on 16th Ave last summer on one of the hottest days of the year. I’ve been sitting on it for months waiting for a reason to post it and today I’m sharing it as a reminder to you that the fin-wilting heat of summer will return. Hang in there!

This weekend marks the end of African Heritage month, and if you haven’t yet had a chance to take in any of the events that have been happening around Vancouver, you’re in luck. As part of the festivities, Urban Ink Theate Company is presenting SLaMFête, a youth-oriented (go HERE for more information about that) artistic celebration billed as “a weekend full of entertainment, including a play reading by a very talented up-and-comer, Omari Newton; innovative “Bold Skool” workshops; and a hip hop revolution like never before experienced.”

I had a chance to catch up with actor and playwright Omari Newton and get some details about the third year of SLaMFête, as well as tips on sushi in the city and where ex-Montréalers in Vancouver can get their Habs fix in a Canuck-free environment.

Omari Newton, rocking a red polo at W2.

What can we expect from SLaMFête?
A vast range of cultures intersecting to create art. It’s very prevalent in Montréal, but something I haven’t really seen a lot in Vancouver. For example, at our SLaMFête we have an emcee who is Sikh, an Israeli rapper, myself from Montréal, one DJ from Latin America and another who is Vietnamese. The mandate of the Urban Ink Theatre Company is to promote the work of minority artists so we’re really looking to have as much diversity as we can at each of our events. People can look forward to a sampling of a bunch of different cultures that are really just representative of Canada. It’s cool to see them all on one stage.

Where did the idea from this weekend come from?
We started off three years ago as a poetry slam at Luggz Café on Main, which burned down. It’s grown from there – the next year we did it at the new W2 space and then this year we’ve expanded even further. All of our events are going down at the new Ironworks Studio in Gastown.

I’m really excited about it for many different reasons, but certainly the play that I wrote and am acting in, Sal Capone: The Lamentable Tragedy of. The play is based on a real life event, about a kid who was shot by police in Montréal. His friends ended up protesting and it quickly devolved into a riot. So, the story is not one of those “cops bad, kids good” kind of stories necessarily, it’s more about, “what are the circumstances that come into play?” After the play we’re going to have a town hall talk back with police, RCMP, social workers … a huge intersection of different walks of live having a conversation about a pretty controversial topic. I’m really stoked for that.

Proactive art. Everybody gets involved by participating.
Absolutely! A lot of the groups that I just mentioned are represented in the play, too, which makes it really interesting.

What prompted your move to Vancity from Montréal?
I came in 2006 for more work in film and TV, but I still do theatre. I did Bard on the Beach in 2008.

What neighbourhood do you call home?
Currently Yaletown – don’t judge! (Laughs.) I’ve lived in Burnaby and on Commercial Drive, Coal Harbour … I’ve hauled around. They all have their benefits but I really loved the Drive. It was really sweet, culturally. Really cool. I live in a condo in Yaletown and it’s nice to have a hot tub in your building, but you sacrifice culture.

Any favourite spots in the city?
I do! Real cliché, but I love English Bay. When I first moved here I couldn’t believe you could be at Starbucks and then five minutes later be on the beach. So I spent a lot of time with my iPod and my books sitting in a bench – you know that crazy apartment with the tree? There’s a bench in front of that one that I’d chill out at a lot.

There’s a really cool spot on Granville Street, Forum, which has been taken over by a bunch of Montréalers like myself. If you want a cool spot to watch a Habs game …

You can be among your people.
It’s like a little piece of Montréal. Lots of French-Canadian accents, which remind me of home.

Tons of sushi spots – my favourite is on Hornby and Nelson. They’re fast, they’re cheap, and they’re super nice.

What do you get when you go there?
I get the chicken teriyaki bowl and an apple juice. Every single time.

I’m currently on a public engagement committee for Generation Green, a contest that the Vancouver Foundation is putting on where they’re investing a whole lot of money into your green ideas in Vancouver. We brought you some info on it a little while back but seeing as there’s only a few days left until the deadline I thought I’d remind you of it.

The basics are that they’re giving away 20 grants of up to $12,500 to young people between the ages of 6 and 24 to execute green ideas in Vancouver. Do I need to tell you that this is huge? Visit the site for all of the details and tell everybody you know who might have a great green idea to apply.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Every day we share a single photo from our Flickr Pool shot by one of our faithful and talented readers (that’s you!).

I vaguely recall going to the Vancouver Aquarium on a field trip back when I was a wee lad in Langley. I don’t really have a good reason not to have gone back as an adult – in fact I think I remember trying to once, but it was either closed or almost closing time – but I really should. Now that my nephews and nieces are getting to be a few years old, perhaps I should be the fun uncle and take one of them there.

Or maybe after seeing this photograph from d.a.j.k. I might just go down there for a visit with or without them. And then go back again with them.

That is, as long as there is a fence between myself and this Steller Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus, for you Latin fans out there). This is one of five female sea lions that are living at the Aquarium (Tasu, Rogue, Willo, Izzy and Ashby), and all five are part of a joint research effort between the Aquarium and UBC to try and determine the cause of the collapse of the Steller sea lion population in Alaska.

On a day like today, aren’t you glad you aren’t a fish?

If anyone wants to come up with a witty caption for what our pinniped friend here might be saying, put it in a comment below. But remember, normal VIA policies for comments still apply, and let’s keep this is a family-friendly place!

Gary